Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 4 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

Missed Connections, the Sequel 

A demon eye. Most people would be shocked at receiving such a thing so suddenly. By chance, she happened to be in that alley, and by chance, she happened to give it to me. It was such a twist of fate, and my mind had not caught up with what was happening. 

That aside, I had done just as the Man-God instructed me. So that meant things went exactly the way he wanted them to. The thought made me want to tear the eye out and crush it underfoot. I didn’t, though, because that seemed too painful and scary. 

At any rate, I started back to the inn and cursed my own naivety. The people walking around town were all doubled. Which was the future, and which was the past? Even if I could tell, people’s movements were unpredictable. I kept misjudging them with my eyes and bumping into people. 

“Tsk! Watch where you’re walking!” 

From the man’s appearance, I guessed he was a small-time thug. He had a voluminous beard on his chin and a scar on his face. I didn’t get the impression he was an adventurer, but rather one of the many pests that infested the city. 

“Yes, I apologize. My eyes aren’t very good.” 

“Your eyes aren’t good, eh? Then walk on the side of the road! You know most of the folks around this area that can’t see or hear well look apologetic when they’re walking around!” 

He was just trying to pick a fight. His threats were intimidating, but I could tell he wasn’t that angry, just a bit irritated. “I’ll be careful from now on,” I said. 

“That’s right, watch it!” 

I didn’t want things to escalate further, so I just held my tongue and looked the other way. 

The thug hocked and spat at the ground before walking off. Then he paused. “Tch…ah, that’s right,” he said. “I just have one question for you. You seen a drunk moron walking around here? He never came back yesterday.” 

I saw it just as he looked back at me: a flowerpot shattering right on top of his head. What happened next was instantaneous.I channeled mana with my right hand and released wind magic that blew him out of the way. 

“Gah!” He somersaulted across the ground, then leaped to his feet in a defensive stance. He whipped out his sword and aimed its tip at me. “Bastard, what the hell are—” 

That was when the flowerpot crashed against the ground, shattering. Both of us followed its trajectory upward. A middle-aged woman gazed down at us with a dumbfounded look upon her face. “I-I’m so sorry! Are you all right down there?” 

“Ah, yes, we’re fine!” 

She ducked back into the house after I answered. The thug’s gaze flitted between me, the spot where the pot had fallen, and his current position. He gulped. 

“Umm…about that drunk guy, he’s passed out in one of the alleyways. Probably had a fight with someone. Anyway, I’ll be off.” I spoke as quickly as possible before turning my back on the scene. I didn’t want to be further involved with that thug. 

This eye seemed to have its uses after all, though it would be a nuisance if it caused problems like this constantly. I decided to work on mastering it quickly. 

*** 

I returned to the inn. When I told Eris and Ruijerd that I had met the Demon World’s Great Emperor, they were both flabbergasted. 

“The Demon World’s Great Emperor? I didn’t think she would revive.” Ruijerd had a rare look of surprise on his face. 

“And I never dreamed I would get something like a demon eye so suddenly.” 

“Bestowing demon eyes is a power only the Great Emperor possesses,” he explained. 

The Great Emperor of the Demon World, Kishirika Kishirisu, was also known as the Demon Emperor of Resurrection. Another name for her was the Demon Emperor of Demon Eyes. Apparently, she wasn’t that skilled in combat, but with twelve demon eyes in her possession, there were many things she could see that most could not. Her most fearsome power was her ability to turn another person’s eye into a demon eye. It was through that power that she bestowed demon eyes on all of her followers, giving her the power to rule over all of the demon tribes. There were even those who became her followers just so they could obtain more power. 

“I wonder what she was doing in this city?” I said. 

“Who knows? I have no idea what goes through the minds of Demon Kings or Demon Emperors,” Ruijerd said with a shrug. 

True, I thought. You didn’t even know the true intentions of the Demon God you served for so many years, after all. Not that I would say as much to him, knowing it would only depress him. 

Eris, on the other hand, was starry-eyed over the title “Demon World’s Great Emperor.” “That’s incredible. I want to meet her, too!” 

“You do?” 

Eris and Kishirika. Just what kind of conversation would the two of them have if they were to meet? Even I was a little curious. As unlikely as it seemed, they might find common ground. 

“I wonder if she’s still in the city.” 

“I’m not sure,” I said. 

Who knows? Maybe if I went back through the alleys tomorrow, I’d find her passed out from hunger again. It felt like a highly plausible running gag, given her character. But still, quite unlikely. It seemed she was searching for someone, so she’d probably moved on already. It was as if she were a magical girl being led on by the Law of Cycles, or something.“I’m sure she’s probably left the city by now.” 

“Really? That’s too bad,” Eris said. She would probably go check out the back alleys tomorrow anyway, despite what I said. 

“Anyway, with that said, I’m going to hole up in the inn. You two are free to go off on your own.” 

They each gave a nod. 

*** 

It took a week to learn how to use the demon eye. Put simply, it wasn’t that difficult. You could control the eye through mana. It was very similar to the way I used magic without chanting, which I had done many times before. Through mana, you could control what you saw. I was confused until I realized there were two types of focus. Then things came together quickly. 

One of the focus types controlled opacity, like changing the shade of dialogue windows in an erotic game. At first, it was turned to max, so everything appeared fully doubled. I made the opacity as low as possible. By channeling mana into the inner part of my eye, I could weaken my foresight ability enough to see the present. Glimpses of the future were beneficial, though, so I adjusted the opacity to the exact point where it wasn’t distracting, but still visible. Then I tried to maintain it like that. If I lost focus for even a second, the opacity would change. It took three days before I could keep it consistent. 

The next one was duration—or rather, the latency. I could change how far into the future I could see by channeling mana into the forefront of my eye. The furthest forward I could normally see was only one second, but with the use of mana I could see two or more seconds into the future. Things blurred into twos or threes, like the branch of a tree splitting off and representing different possibilities. 

I could see up to three or four seconds with more mana, but if I tried to see up to five seconds in advance, the image split and blurred so much that it gave me a headache. That was representative of just how many ways the future could change. Also, the further you tried to see into the future, the more it taxed your brain, apparently. Kishirika even said that having two demon eyes would cripple you. Perhaps it was the influence of all her demon eyes that made her seem like such an airhead. 

Regardless, I knew that I could safely see one second into the future. It took me three days to master this, then an extra day to learn how to control both factors at once. In total, it took seven days to learn the basics of using my Eye of Foresight. 

*** 

While I was busy channeling mana into my eye and commanding it, Do my bidding, Eye of Foresight! Eris and Ruijerd went somewhere together every day. When they returned, Eris was always bathed in sweat while Ruijerd looked as composed as ever, only perspiring slightly more than usual. The two of them were doing something to work up that sweat. And every single day, at that! 

“Just for the sake of reference, I’d like to ask. What are you two doing?” 

Eris was wringing out a rag drenched in sweat when I asked. She answered, “Heh heh, that’s a secret!” She looked to be truly enjoying herself. 

So she was doing something in secret that she couldn’t tell me? Oh, I get it. A little afternoon delight, eh? Guess my only hope for action was to drown myself in the scent of that sweat-soaked rag she was holding. 

Don’t get the wrong idea—I wasn’t particularly worried about it. They were probably just going out and training. While her attitude might have suggested otherwise, Eris actually was the type to work hard in secret. Back when we were in the Fittoa Region, she did the same thing, frequently training with Ghislaine on her days off. Back then, whenever I asked her what she was doing, she would get that same overconfident smirk on her face and say, “It’s a secret!” So I was sure it had to be training this time, too. 

That night I had a dream about a thirty-four-year-old shut-in prodding me in the cheek as he whispered in my ear, “From now on your nickname will be ‘pathetic loser’.” I figured it had to be the Man-God’s handiwork. That bastard was really good for absolutely nothing. 

*** 

A week later I informed Eris and Ruijerd about my ability to control the Eye of Foresight. When I did, Ruijerd suggested, “Then why don’t you and Eris have a bout?” Was it to test how usable this thing was in battle? Or was it to show me the results of her special training? Accomplishing both at once would be a sweet deal, so I accepted. 

We relocated to the beach. Ruijerd stood on the sidelines to observe while we took up positions opposite one another, swords in hand. 

“Do you really think you can beat me now just because you got that demon eye?!” Eris was feeling particularly confident today. She must’ve learned some new technique or something this past week. 

I wanted to keep that cheeky grin on her face. “Nope, it’s fine if I lose. I just want to know how much I can see in the midst of battle with this eye, that’s all.” That was why I wasn’t going to use magic today. I wanted to see the fruits of my own labor, as well. I adjusted my eye to be able to see one second into the future and the fight began. 

“Hmph, that sounds just like something you would say, but…” 

I could see what she was going to do even as she was still talking. She’s going to suddenly swing her left fist at me. If I didn’t have this eye, I wouldn’t have been able to react in time. Eris was a natural when it came to launching preemptive strikes. 

“Hah!” 

“Oho!” I was able to dodge her attack. I countered by clapping the side of her face. 

Then the next vision came. Eris won’t even flinch—she’ll start an onslaught of attacks instead, with the sword in her right hand. That was Eris’ strong point. She could shrug off any number of attacks and launch right into an offensive. Her lower body was so strong that most attacks wouldn’t send her reeling. In fact, the more damage she took, the more it charged her rage and the more aggressive her attacks became. 

“Tah!” 

“Okay!” I struck her forearm hard. Eris dropped the sword. Previously, I would have considered the battle over at that point. Dropping your sword meant you lost, or at least it did when I was training under Ghislaine. However, I could see with my eye that this wasn’t over yet. 

Eris is already falling back into her second line of attack. 

In other words, this was just one of her feints. She dropped the sword to get me to lower my guard. 

She’ll punch me right in the chin with her left fist. 

In other words, she purposefully dropped the sword to lure me into a false sense of security, so she could launch into her usual style of hand-to-hand combat: Eris’ special Boreas Punch. 

“Wha…!” 

“Your legs are open.” I hooked my foot around hers, knocking her off balance. Her fist swiped at empty air and she fell to the ground. 

Still, it seemed the battle wasn’t over. 

She’s going to catch herself with her hands, use the rebound and torque to turn, and latch onto my right leg. 

“Uh-uh.” I stepped back and at the same time brought my knees down, pinning her so she couldn’t move. 

Thanks to the way she’d contorted her body in a desperate attempt to bite me, Eris’ body was all twisted. One arm was squashed beneath her, while one of her legs was bent toward her bottom. I wondered what she would do next, but all I could foresee was more struggling. 

“That’s enough,” our referee called out. 

Eris drooped as if the energy had been drained out of her. 

Did I win? Did I actually win? This was the first time I had ever beaten Eris in close combat and without magic. 

“I failed, huh…” Eris had a surprisingly tranquil look on her face when she gazed up at me. 

I got off her. She stood up slowly and dusted the dirt off of her outfit. 

She’s going to punch me. 

Eris’ expression soured when I stopped her fist with my hand. “I’m going home!” she declared loudly. Her shoulders trembled as she left for the inn. 

Did I really piss her off? I wondered. No, that wasn’t it. I probably just made her lose some confidence. She’d always had an easy time beating me so far. Now I had suddenly gotten stronger. If I were in her place, I would have probably felt jealous, too. 

“Eris is still a child,” Ruijerd said as he watched her go. 

“That’s normal for her age,” I responded before looking back at him. 

He looked me in the eye and nodded. “Smooth work.” 

“Anyone who had a demon eye could do that.” 

I had gotten somewhat fitter, but there were dozens of other people in this world with similar physical ability. Anyone who had a demon eye should be able to do the same. 

“A demon eye isn’t something a person can immediately master when they get it.” 

“Oh, really?” 

“There was a Superd in my battle troupe who had a demon eye. He kept an eyepatch over it constantly and never managed to control it, not even till the day he died. You’re an odd one for being able to control it after just one week.” 

Oh, okay. Okay, yeah. Yeah, I got what he meant. 

Well, I did work really hard on controlling my mana flow, and I did master using it in just a week. So I was the only one able to control it this quickly, huh? I see, I see. Mwahaha! “Perhaps I could even beat you, Mister Ruijerd.” 

“If you use magic,” he agreed. 

“In close-combat?” 

“Want to give it a try?” 

I decided to take him up on that offer. To be frank, I was getting ahead of myself. “Yes, please.” 

Ruijerd put his lance aside and took a stance empty-handed. In other words, he didn’t need his signature weapon against a runt like me. “You can use magic if you’d like,” he said. 

“No, if we’re going to do this, we’ll do it with our bare hands.” 

Before I had even finished, a vision appeared before me. Ruijerd’s palm is going to come straight at me. 

I could see it. I could see what he was going to do, and I could react to it. 

“Oho!” I reached my hand out to stop him. 

He’s going to grab my hand. 

The moment I saw the vision, I instinctively pulled my hand back. The next moment, the vision blurred. 

He’s going to catch me in the face with his fist. 

Now there were two visions; in other words, two separate potential futures. One in which he grabbed my arm, and another in which he slammed his fist into my face. What was going on? Doubt stirred within me. My vision wasn’t supposed to blur within a one-second window. 

“Whoa!” I bent my body back, narrowly evading his attack. 

Ruijerd’s fist is going to come at my face. 

I could see it. I could see it clearly. But my body was already contorted from dodging his last attack. Even if I could see what he would do next, I wasn’t able to move in time to avoid it. 

“Bwah!” 

His fist caught me right in the middle of my face. My head struck the sandy beach as I tumbled to the ground. I was left lying there facedown. 

I reached a hand up to check for injuries. I was okay, right? I hoped he didn’t completely mangle my beautiful face. I didn’t have a pushed-in pug face now, did I? 

“Yield?” 

I could sense it was over the moment he asked that. “Yes, I admit defeat.” I thought I could win when I saw the first vision, but it seemed things weren’t quite so simple. 

“But now you understand, right?” 

I took the hand he held out to me and stood up. “No, I don’t. The future I saw just blurred. How did you do that?” 

“I have no idea what you saw, but I decided that if you tried to defend with your hand I would grab it, and if you didn’t then I would punch. That was all that went through my head.” 

In other words, as long as he could guess what I was going to do next, he could react to it. There was such a gap in our skill levels that my ability to see one second into the future ultimately meant nothing. Similar to shogi, you could say. Even if a novice could see one move ahead, there was still no way they could beat a master. 

The inhabitants of this world were, to an unusual degree, highly skilled. There were probably many others out there who could fight like Ruijerd. 

“More importantly, I’ve fought someone with the same demon eye before. Ever since then, I’ve fought with the assumption that everyone has the same ability. You and I have different levels of experience.” 

“That’s true.” 

So he used his experience to combat the Eye of Foresight. Perhaps the sword styles of this world also had ways to counter the power of a demon eye—for instance, the Sword God Style’s Longsword of Light. I got the feeling that even if you could see it, you wouldn’t be able to dodge it. 

“It looks like I got a little ahead of myself.” 

It seemed the weaknesses of the demon eye were already long-established, such as finding a way to block the possessor’s vision, using a shield, attacking from behind, or even fighting in the dark. 

All that aside, this eye still had its appeal. I beat Eris, after all. Just thinking about the ways in which I could use it from now on made my heart pound. I had predicted everything Eris would do. A complete 180 from how things were before. In other words, with practice, I might even be able to predict Ruijerd’s movements. 

That was when the hermit appeared with a poof inside my head, with his bald head and sunglasses. “Now you don’t have to get smacked around all the time to see how far you’ve come!” he said. 

All right, then. Thank you, breast-loving hermit. Hmm. Thinking about all the ways I could use this eye really did make my heart soar! 

*** 

When I returned to the inn, wearing a dreamy look on my face, I found Eris perched on the bed with her knees hugged to her chest. Oh, right, I had forgotten about her. She was depressed. Meanwhile, my inner hermit had hopped on his turtle and disappeared somewhere else. 

“Um, Eris?” 

“What do you want?” 

After our battle, Ruijerd told me what the two of them had been doing this past week. Apparently it was special training, after all. Not the perverted kind, of course. To strengthen herself, Eris had dedicated every single day to sword practice. As a result, she had successfully managed to beat him one time. 

She’d beaten Ruijerd once. That was extraordinary. I’d probably never manage that in my entire life. Apparently, Eris got pretty cocky because of it. That’s why Ruijerd used me to deflate her ego. 

Seriously, what the hell? It was his own mistake and yet that lolicon-loving wannabe warrior made me clean up his mess. Still, it was effective. Her ego had swelled so much after claiming victory against an opponent she’d never beaten before (Ruijerd), only to be punctured by losing to an opponent who had never defeated her before (me). 

That said, I didn’t think this was the right way of handling it. I knew what it was like to finally start thinking, Hey, maybe I’ve got the hang of this? only to be proven otherwise. It left you feeling completely miserable, as if everything you’d done up until now had been pointless. 

Sure, perhaps it helped cool her head. Maybe she wouldn’t make big mistakes now. But Eris was probably in a period of rapid growth. I didn’t think checking her ego was the right answer. Instead, it was better to let her ride that high so she could develop even faster. Then you could point out her shortcomings and correct them afterward. 

“You really have gotten very strong, Eris.” 

“It’s fine, you don’t need to comfort me. I knew I couldn’t beat you, anyway.” Still irritable, she stuck out her bottom lip in a pout. 

Hmm, what could I say to her? I didn’t have any good stock phrases for times like this. 

Ruijerd hadn’t come back to the room with me. It was his fault her ego got out of hand in the first place, so I wished he would do something about this, even though it was true that I was the one who had actually burst her bubble. 

Then again, if I could comfort her properly, her affection meter would undoubtedly go up. She would fall head over heels for me, and the two of us would hold each other cheek-to-cheek in a love dance. Ruijerd must have assumed that was what would happen, and that’s why he’d left us alone. 

“Don’t lose all of your confidence over this. I heard you managed to beat Ruijerd once. That’s amazing, right?” I took a seat beside her as I spoke. When I did, Eris leaned her body against mine. The sweet scent of sweat filled my nostrils. It was a good smell, but I had to rein myself in. I needed to be a gentleman in this situation. 

“It’s cheating, Rudeus. You got a demon eye for yourself while I had to work my butt off…” 

I froze. My head instantly went numb. My inner wolf receded with its tail tucked firmly between its legs. There was nothing I could say in response. 

She was right. What was I getting so happy over? It was cheating. What I’d done was dishonest. The demon eye’s power wasn’t something I’d worked hard to obtain. It just fell into my lap. All I did was buy food from some stand and wander the back alleys. True, it had taken me a week to master its powers. But that was it. I hadn’t struggled at all. What the hell was I doing using that power and acting all happy that I’d beaten Eris when she spent an entire week working hard, drenched in sweat? 

“I’m sorry.” 

“Don’t apologize.” 

Eris went completely silent after that. She didn’t move away from me, though. My heart would normally be pounding at her scent or the warmth of her body, but this time it didn’t. Instead I just felt ashamed, as if her heat and the smell of her sweat were criticizing me. The air felt heavy. 

Maybe it was better for me to not use the demon eye unless absolutely necessary. Its convenience might hamper my growth. I understood as much after fighting Ruijerd. 

Right now, the most important thing wasn’t thinking about how to utilize this demon eye. Instead, I needed to hone my combat ability. True, I was a better fighter when I used the eye. But my skills would eventually plateau if I relied on that. Relying on a crutch would only come back to haunt me later. It was dangerous. I almost let myself play right into the schemes of that treacherous devil, the Man-God. 

I decided I would only use my demon eye as a final trump card. 

*** 

That night I spent time thinking by myself. 

Ultimately, we hadn’t found a way to cross the ocean yet. Had I messed up somewhere? I followed the Man-God’s advice well enough, but all I had gained was the demon eye. 

Was this supposed to help somehow? Like with gambling? But pleasures like gambling didn’t exist here on the Demon Continent. If they did, they were probably in the form of betting on brawls between two people. That wouldn’t earn me much money. We could use Ruijerd as a gladiator and charge a participation fee of one crude iron with a prize pool of five green ore coins, but eventually he’d run out of opponents. 

Hmm. No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t come up with any solutions. We were still in the same situation as we were before I was given the Man-God’s advice. In a way, we had wasted a week. Wasted an entire week. 

“Okay…guess I should sell it.” Saying the words out loud helped strengthen my resolve. 

Fortunately Ruijerd wasn’t around tonight, and Eris was already on the edge of her bed with her belly hanging out. It would be troublesome if she caught a cold, so I pulled a blanket over her. 

There was no one to stop me. Surely the back alley pawnshop was still open, right? After all, shops that dealt with suspicious items were always open at night. With my staff in one hand, I left the inn. 

I only made it three steps outside. 

“Where are you going this late at night?” 

Ruijerd was standing in my way. He hadn’t been in the room, so I thought he was off somewhere else. Clearly, I was wrong. Dammit, what was he trying to do, peep on people? I had to fool him somehow. 

“Um, I was just going to go have some sexy and dangerous late-night fun at one of the brothels.” 

“And you need your staff to have sex with a woman?” 

“Uh…it’s a prop for sex play.” 

Silence. I knew that wasn’t going to cut it. 

“You intend to sell it?” 

“…Yes.” His aim was so precise I had to confess. 

“I’m going to ask you again. Are you going to sell that staff?” 

“Yes. This staff is made out of really good quality materials, so it should sell for quite a sum.” 

“I’m not talking about that. Isn’t that staff important to you? Just like this pendant.” He held up Roxy’s pendant, hanging around his neck. 

“Yes, it’s just as important.” 

“If similar problems happened in the future, would you sell this pendant, too?” 

I paused. “If it were necessary.” 

He took in a deep breath. I thought he was going to scream, even though he wasn’t the type to raise his voice unless it had something to do with children. He didn’t yell. Instead, he breathed out a sigh as he spoke. “I would never give up my spear, not even if I were driven against a wall.” 

“That’s because it’s a memento from your son, right?” 

“No, because it’s the embodiment of a warrior’s spirit.” 

A warrior’s spirit, huh? Those were elegant words, but they wouldn’t get us across the ocean. 

There was a sadness in Ruijerd’s eyes. “You said we had three options before.” 

“I did,” I agreed. 

“I don’t remember selling your staff being part of any of those options.” 

“It wasn’t.” 

It seemed he was going to reproach me for lying to him. No, I never intended to lie. Selling my staff was a part of the frontal attack option. 

“Have I still not earned your trust?” 

“Trust? I trust you,” I said. 

“Then why won’t you discuss it with me?” 

I averted my eyes at the question. I knew he wouldn’t approve of my plan. That’s why I didn’t talk to him about it. Perhaps you could say that was proof that I didn’t really trust him after all. 

“I believe I’ve come to understand the current state of the world in the past year. Even if we completed missions from the guild or went dungeon diving, we would never be able to save up two hundred iron ore coins. It’s too much money.” 

Ruijerd was being unusually realistic in his speech tonight. Did he eat something weird? 

“You knew that. That’s why you came up with the option of using a smuggler. I wouldn’t have thought of that. But that’s the only way for me to get to the Millis Continent. You’re correct about that. So why are you trying to sell your staff?” 

The only thing I came up with was a better option, not the best option. The best option, the one where everything worked out perfectly, was too difficult and would likely end in failure. So I didn’t know the correct solution, just as I hadn’t any other time before. That was also why I wasn’t convinced that using a smuggler really was the right option. 

“Even if it is the right option, there’s no point if it creates a rift within our party,” I said. 

“So you think that if we rely on a smuggler, it will create a rift?” 

“Yes. Because according to your values, a smuggler is nothing more than a criminal.” 

Smuggling… Slaves were included in the list of goods they carried. Plus, one of the more popular crimes in this world was kidnapping. Children were easy to kidnap. Put simply, smugglers were accomplices to kidnapping and selling children. 

“Rudeus.” 

“Yes?” 

“It’s my fault that things have come to this. If it were just the two of you, you wouldn’t have to worry about getting two hundred green ore coins.” 

On the other hand, if he hadn’t been with us, we might have met with disaster on the way here. Ruijerd had helped us a countless number of times. 

“Even if you solve the problem by selling your staff, my pride can’t accept that.” 

His pride didn’t change what needed to be done. 

“If I sell the staff, I’ll get the money. Then we can play by the rules, pay, and cross the sea. No one has to have any regrets. No one has to compromise anything. That’s the smartest way to go about this, right?” 

“But the shame I will feel because you sold it will still remain. Eris will be bothered by it, too. Isn’t that the rift that you were talking about avoiding?” 

I went silent as Ruijerd looked straight at me. 

“Look for a smuggler. I’ll turn a blind eye to their crimes.” He had a serious look on his face. He’d probably resolved not to interfere even if he encountered an abducted child, just so I wouldn’t have to sell my staff. It was all for my sake. He was bending his own principles and beliefs for my sake. If his resolve was that strong, I couldn’t argue the point with him. 

“If, during the trip, you see a real sleazebag and you can’t hold back, please tell me. We should at least be able to help a child.” 

If Ruijerd was that serious about it, then I would drop this plan, however smart I thought it was. We would rely on a smuggler to cross the sea. But this time I wasn’t going to cater to other people. If Ruijerd couldn’t hold himself back, we would betray them without hesitation and help whoever needed it. We would use the criminals as needed and then toss them aside. 

“All right, then let’s start looking for a smuggler,” I said. 

“Yeah. Let’s do that.” 

“I’m afraid you’ll see a lot of unpleasant things along the way, but let’s get through it together.” 

“Same to you.” 

The two of us exchanged a firm handshake. 

We released our hands and were about to head back in to sleep when Ruijerd’s face went rigid. He suddenly readied the spear in his hands. “Who is it?! What business do you have here!” 

I trembled with surprise at how sudden and intimidating his actions were, then followed his gaze. There, in the darkness of an alleyway, was the figure of a lone man with a half-smile on his bearded face. He had his arms raised as if to demonstrate that he had no ill intent. A sword hung at his side. He looked like he’d walked right out of a combat scene in a movie. 

“Ooh, scary. Here I thought everything I’d heard about the Superd race was a load of crap, but here you are, the real thing.” He wore a faint smile as he approached. I had seen this guy somewhere before. “First off, could you put away that dangerous-looking weapon? Not like I came here looking for a fight. I was searching for you so I could give you my thanks.” 

“This late at night?” 

“Little early for you to be off in dreamland, no?” 

Ah, I remembered now. This was the man I tangled with previously, the guy whose shoulder I bumped into after receiving my Eye of Foresight. I never dreamed he would come to thank me in the middle of the night. He really was a thug. 

“Took me a little while to find you. No one knew about any magicians with bad eyesight. But when I heard the rumors about Dead End, I knew it was you. Your gray robe and ability to cast spells without chanting anything, as well as your height—short as a hobbit—and that condescendingly polite way of talking.” 

I wasn’t actually a hobbit, though. 

“Kennel Master Ruijerd. You helped me seven days ago. And thanks to you I also found that moron, as well. When I found him, he had his chin smashed in and was collapsed in an alleyway. Poor fool. In the state he’s in, he won’t be able to drink anything but alcohol for a while. Not that he ever drank anything else, anyway.” 

Seriously? 

“Nah, I was just joking. I do at least have one healing magician among my friends.” 

Good. The man I bumped into might have been a pervy old lolicon, but at least he didn’t have his jaw split open too. 

“So is that what you came here to thank me for?” 

“That, and for using your magic to push me out of the way. You saved my noggin from getting busted.” 

“So that’s all. Well, glad to hear it.” 

The man spoke with extreme gravity. “In my line of work, there’s nothing worse than a debt of gratitude. No matter how small it is, if you don’t pay it back it’ll eventually catch up with you, and you may get stuck in a situation where you have to betray your comrades. That’s why it’s best to pay it back and pay it back quickly.” He shook his head dramatically and pointed at me. “I was listening in, Kennel Master, and you’re in luck. It just so happens you bumped into someone who’s a member of a smuggling organization.” 

Ruijerd and I turned to look at one another. This guy was a member of a smuggling organization? What a convenient development. I would’ve suspected him of lying, but there was also the Man-God’s advice. Perhaps the whole point was so I would meet this man. 

As I struggled to make a decision, the man seemed to misinterpret our silence and extended his palm toward us. “That said, don’t get the wrong idea. I’m returning a favor, but smuggling a Superd is on a completely different level. I don’t think my life is worth two hundred green ore.” 

Unsure of what he meant, I turned my eyes to him and encouraged him to continue. 

The man just grinned. “I expect Dead End to be pretty strong, so I got a favor. Feel like listening?” 

He was going to return a favor, but also wanted one of his own? That seemed a bit off. Then again, he did see me using magic without chanting. His talk of repaying a debt was probably just a cover; he was actually looking for someone competent to do a job for him. That was why he made his appearance when he heard our conversation. 

Ruijerd cast a glance at me. Negotiating was my job, after all. 

“It depends on the details of your request.” 

“Nothing too difficult.” Yet the conditions he listed were a bit unexpected. “You see, we have to store smuggled goods before we deliver them, and then we have to keep them safe until the claimant comes to retrieve them. In a month from now, we’re going to store some, ahem, goods before shipping them. I want you to release those people. If possible, I’d like you to make arrangements so they get back to their homes.” 

“Isn’t that the exact definition of betraying your friends?” 

“Nah, it’s for their own good. There’s one mixed among those goods…well, slaves, as you’d call them…who will cause trouble for us in the future. Selling them would net us a huge fortune, but it would also come back to haunt us a year from now.” He shrugged and continued. “I tried to tell them no, but it’s not like we’re a single, organized group. I was looking for someone both capable and tight-lipped who could squash their plans. So how about it?” 

Once again Ruijerd and I traded glances. We weren’t kidnapping, but rather saving people. If that were the case, I didn’t see the problem with it, but… 

“Why can’t you do it? With your sword and your abilities, you should be able to, right?” 

“That’s right. I may not look it, but I’m the strongest among my buddies. Still, Mister Superd, it’s not like I wanna betray my comrades. I have to consider what would happen afterward, you understand. Even if I saved them, I’d have nowhere to go anymore, so there’d be no point. Just because you’re the strongest doesn’t mean you get to be on top.” 

“…” 

From the look on Ruijerd’s face, it was difficult to tell whether or not he understood where the man was coming from. He looked like he understood it on a logical level, but not an emotional one. 

“Rudeus, I don’t mind. You decide.” 

Ruijerd had just said he would close one eye to any wrongdoing. No matter how seedy the man in front of us was, he would obey if I decided to do it. 

I considered it. A lot of this was suspicious. Still, this was something that transpired as a result of the Man-God’s advice. While it was true that I couldn’t trust the god himself, I was probably best off not overthinking things and going with the flow, just like I did last time. 

Based on what we’d heard, we wouldn’t be committing any crimes. There was a good chance the person we were helping was a horrible monster, but saving someone was still saving someone, regardless of their character. 

Besides, we could really use a smuggler to lead us across the ocean. This wasn’t a bad deal if we could cross without any charges or fees in return. With all that, it was easy to come to a decision. 

“All right, we’ll do it.” 

Ruijerd nodded and the man laughed. “All right then, I’ll trust you to do a good job. Name’s Gallus Cleaner.” 

“Rudeus Greyrat.” 

And so it came to pass that we exchanged names and decided to take on a mission from a smuggling organization.